Poppy Parnell

Poppy Parnell is one of the main characters in Truth Be Told. She is portrayed by Octavia Spencer.

She is the investigative reporter behind a hit true-crime podcast that reopens the case of Josie and Lanie’s father’s murder.

Season 1
In Monster, 19 years after the arrest of then 16 year old Warren Cave after being tried for the murder of Chuck Buhrman, Poppy is attending a post-conviction hearing, and listening to a witness statement. The defense is accusing the investigators of forcing a coerced eye witness statement from the daughter of the murdered man, Lanie. The judge dismiss the footage as coerced. Warren’s mother is there and is declaring that her son is innocent. Poppy looks on with a curious look. The next day, Poppy attends a journalism conference and asks her partner Ingram about her article 19 years ago where she paints Warren as a monster. She believes her story was a factor in his arrest. Poppy spends the night looking at old evidence in the garage and she decides to do a new story on Warren Cave. She launches her podcast and details the murder of Chuck Buhrman. She starts to believe that perhaps it was a circumstantial case, but if it wasn’t Warren, then who was it and why? Later, Poppy approaches Melanie, Warren’s mom and asks if she can speak to her son. She does not want anything to do with Poppy and reveals that she has terminal cancer. Similarly, Lanie Buhrman, who is now Lanie Dunn, is approached by Poppy, but she is also resistant to her approach, though Warren’s mother finally breaks and gives Poppy access to her son in prison.

When Poppy eventually meets Warren, he calls Poppy a predator. He then reveals Nazi tattoos on his wrist, and she immediately leaves, understandably upset. Poppy asks Warren’s mother about his allegiance to the Nazis, but his mother reveals that he would never have joined them if he didn’t end up in prison. Poppy is now torn as a black woman whether to find out if he is innocent. Poppy admits that she knew about the tape and Lanie being potentially coerced, but back then, she chose not to look into everything. Poppy meets Warren again and tells him she believes the Nazi following is all an act to feel safer in prison. Poppy cruelly tells Warren that his mother is dying and asks why his fingerprints were at the house. He admits his finger prints were at the house because he was hunting for drugs. Poppy promises to help Warren if he tells her only the truth and insists that there cannot be any racism aimed at her. As a result, Poppy starts her new podcast titled “Reconsidered”.

In Black People in the Neighborhood, Owen, who is Warren Cave’s father approaches Poppy and wonders why she is reopening old wounds again with her podcast. Owen is also a police officer and states that “my son deserves to be in prison”. Poppy is curious as to why even Warren’s father is against finding clues to his innocence. Poppy’s next route is that she wants to speak to Susan Carver, who was close to the twins Lanie and Josie. Poppy then asks Marcus to look into Owen. In the latest episode of her podcast, Poppy describes how the twins woke up to screaming when their father was found dead by their mother. Poppy insists that they have to find Josie who has disappeared.Later, Marcus tells Poppy that Lanie is in the hospital and that Susan is dead. Marcus feels guilty as he picked up Susan’s phone from the scene of the accident. It’s conveniently unlocked. Poppy finds Josie’s number. While Poppy tries tracking Josie down, Josie is partaking in an interview for a visa. Poppy leaves a voicemail insisting that she just wants to fill in the blanks. Josie listens to the podcast and seems spooked by it.

Later, Poppy interviews Warren. She asks him about his father who is a cop and why he will not help him. Warren’s father visits him and he tells Warren to stop talking to Poppy. Warren then asks his father what he is trying to hide. Eventually, Poppy finds Josie who quickly runs off to the subway. They face each other across the platforms and Poppy rings her. She sits with Josie in a cafe and tells her that Susan is dead. An emotional Josie thanks her for delivering the news. Poppy gives Josie her aunt’s phone. Eventually, Marcus rings Poppy and he tells her that Melanie Cave was having an affair with Chuck Buhrman.

In Even Salt Looks Like Sugar, Poppy talks about Owen Cave on the podcast and how he is the main factor in the prosecution of his son. She asks the question, “was Warren sacrificed for the sins of his father?”. Soon after the attack on Warren, Poppy tries to visit him in prison. But she learns that she does not have the clearance to visit him and finds out that he was knifed. Poppy then asks Ingram how she could get access to Warren again, and despite his hesitation to help his colleague gives her some advice. Later, Poppy goes to meet Jerbic at a suspiciously all-white bar called the Red Saints. She uses her father as leverage and asks him to find a way to get a message to Warren. Now in communication via phone, Poppy asks Warren if she knew about his mother’s affair with Chuck Buhrman and he admits he did know, but also that his father Owen knew too. Poppy approaches Melanie about the affair.The pressure is on Poppy after she went to the Red Saints bar. Her father asks why she went to the bar and traded his name with Jerbic. He gives her a warning to the business she is dealing with. Ingram then has a full-blown argument with Poppy about dealing with a white man that claims to be a Nazi. He’s understandably worried about his wife’s safety.

Poppy confronts Owen and plays the tape recording of her son opening up about the affair. Poppy asks Owen if he will come on the podcast. He tells her she is crossing hazardous lines. Later, the police raid Poppy’s father’s bar due to it not meeting standards and arrests one of Poppy’s sisters who was arguing. The police ask where Poppy is. Poppy and Ingram help bail her sister who has had her weave and makeup removed from her. She felt unnecessarily violated. Poppy’s father blames the situation all on Poppy and grabs her by the neck. Ingram separates them and takes Poppy home. Eventually, Poppy records a new podcast and explains why she identifies with Warren. She wonders, like Warren, if she has been sacrificed for a higher good or someone else’s ambition.

In No Cross, No Crown, Poppy narrates during her podcast mentioning how “[t]he family you are born into forecasts who you are going to be, when does it get to the point where you protect yourself at the expense of your family”. She’s relating this to Owen, which is ironic considering her family is against her at the moment. Poppy discusses Owen Cave on her podcast again regarding his watery alibi. Owen had an unaccounted time of one hour. So Poppy wonders if “Owen Cave killed Chuck?” and the next phase for Poppy is to talk to the 911 callers who are key witnesses from the night. Poppy meets one of the witnesses who called 911 years ago to their apartment. They state that Owen was not wearing a uniform and he suddenly ditched her midway through helping her. Poppy meets Melanie about Owen and as she speaks, she coughs blood everywhere. Poppy takes Melanie to the hospital. While Melanie is on her hospital bed recovering, Poppy asks what she argued with Owen about the day of Chuck’s murder. Melanie says she was going to leave him. Poppy finds out that the second 911 call witness does not exist on the national database anymore, but Marcus finds out who it is anyway. Poppy talks to the second witness and they state that Owen had blood on his shoes at 04:44 am. This is a time after Chuck was murdered.

In Graveyard Love, Poppy meets with Warren in prison now that she’s got her clearance back. Technically, Poppy is now an investigator. She tells him about his father having unaccounted time. Warren reveals to Poppy that his father had him shanked. Meanwhile, Poppy is getting more heat from her close ones. Marcus then blasts her for blowing up Owen on her podcast. He claims it is dangerous to mess with a respected officer of the law. Poppy states she is just after the truth. Marcus has a brief moment where he looks around Poppy’s house and says, “I couldn’t have given you any of this”. Poppy is quick to remind him that it wasn’t just Ingram that afforded their life, she contributed. Poppy rings Marcus the next day as she is trying to understand Owen’s life and learns he set up an organization called Angel’s Halo and there’s only a single doner. Ingram walks in on the conversation and slyly says, “back into the field with Marcus?”. Ingram brings up that he has drawn up a restraining order on her father and she’s fuming.

Poppy and Marcus investigate Owen’s business Angel’s Halo. The business licensee tells them to ask Owen themselves. Poppy notices the receptionist eyeing up Marcus and asks him to use that to his advantage. Later, Poppy heads to a bar to meet Marcus, who tells her that Angel’s Halo is a charity created after Chuck’s murder and that Owen is donating a grand a month to it. It only lists one beneficiary whose initials are JJJ. Both of them believe it sounds like hush money. Warren rings Poppy and it is clear that he is getting impatient. Poppy tells him the initials of the beneficiary for Angel’s Halo. Warren is shocked because he realizes that the initials are for a kid around the block, whose name is John James Jackson. Meanwhile, Owen is listening to Poppy’s podcast. Poppy texts him to say “time’s up". When Poppy returns home to music, she thinks Ingram is being romantic, but it is actually Owen and he has a gun. He forces her to record a retraction, blaming everything on Warren and Melanie. Poppy insists that his story is incomplete and brings up Angel’s Halo. Owen is shaking with anger but also visibly upset, completely drenched from the rain. He reveals he hit John James Jackson by accident and that’s why his time was unaccounted for. Owen then asks Poppy to tell her audience that he was a good man and then he shoots himself in the head. Later, Poppy’s producer calls saying that a witness claims they saw Warren leaving the house of the murder that night with a knife.

In Not Buried, Planted, at Owen’s funeral; many police officers turn up, but this also includes not only Poppy but Warren also. Poppy confronts Warren angrily after the funeral, explaining how there is a credible witness against him. Warren insists he did not kill Chuck and asks Poppy who she thinks is at fault for his father’s death. Shortly thereafter, journalists show up asking Poppy the same questions. Poppy apologizes to Ingram and feels regret about reopening Warren’s story. Later, Poppy’s producer brings her old audio from a “true crime” auction, but Poppy says she is done as she cannot do this anymore and put more lives at risk. Poppy records her new podcast episode with the intention of leaving the story behind; she puts Warren in a bad light again and plays the witness testimony. Poppy’s sister comes over to support her after Owen's suicide. Her father also reconnects with her and it seems that Poppy has her family back. But the happiness is short-lived for Poppy, when her house is broken into. The police come around to investigate. Poppy’s father heads over and he believes it has something to do with the podcast. Poppy meets Warren and asks if he ordered someone to trash her house — Warren says he wishes he had. Poppy shows Warren Lanie’s book and asks him if he knows what it is. Warren says he used to head over to the Buhrman household because he was a kid with a crush. Poppy asks him what the code means in the book.

While analyzing the book with her producer and Ingram, Poppy figures out that Chuck was molesting Lanie by figuring out the code. Poppy puts the math together and realizes that Lanie and Josie have a bad relationship with their mother due to what their father did. Eventually, Poppy meets Lanie and asks for the truth; someone is lying or telling the truth about seeing Warren the night of the murder. Lanie claims she is not lying and tells Poppy to get out of the car. Poppy asks Lanie how long was her father abusing her. Lanie bursts into tears and says her mother got her through it. Poppy now needs medical records; she asks Marcus how they can get Lanie’s medical history. Later that day, Poppy asks Ingram to host a dinner with his friend Tim who happens to have a wife who is a medical professional named Sharon. At the meal, Poppy asks Sharon if she could help retrieve Lanie’s medical records. Sharon is very uncomfortable and asks her husband Tim if they can go home. Ingram suspects that Poppy invited his friend Tim for dinner on purpose and he hits the roof. He says he is exhausted with the lies and knows that Poppy continuously has a laugh with Marcus. Poppy continues recording her podcast, and she says the case has taken her to places she didn’t think she could go. The question is “what scares me the most?”. Poppy looks back at Lanie’s interview tape with the police. Poppy then continues to look at the interview tape asking “Why did you lie, Lanie? What were you hiding?”. Poppy then looks at a photo of Erin, and suddenly she feels that she has a new lead.

In Live Thru This, Poppy interviews Warren and tells him she translated the diary. Poppy believes that Erin killed Chuck to protect her daughter and coached Lanie into identifying Warren. When Poppy leaves, Warren opens up a letter from Lanie. Years earlier a teenage Warren and Lanie are rolling around in the woods and kissing each other. In the letter, she tells Warren that she loves him but not to write back. Marcus then gives Poppy some more crucial information. She says that Erin was out of rehab the night Chuck was murdered but Erin claims she was passed out. So that was her alibi. Poppy now has her sights solely on Erin. Poppy looks into Erin’s rehab, and her sober coach reveals Erin was stone-cold sober when she left. Poppy continues her intrusive ways by visiting Lanie’s husband and wants to talk to him as an outsider because she wants to fill in the gaps. Lanie’s husband reveals that they had to bail out Erin because she broke into her old home. Poppy visits Erin’s old house and asks the owners if they have had anything stolen. The producer of the podcast believes Erin was looking for the murder weapon. MPoppy suddenly turns up and Melanie shouts at Erin, demanding the truth. Poppy asks Erin about Chuck abusing Lanie and that her alibi is blown due to the investigation of her rehab. Poppy tells Erin she knows she did it and wants to help her. Erin agrees to do the interview. Meanwhile, Warren is confronted by an inmate about Kuvney’s death. Warren spits in a guard’s face so he is whisked away before he is hurt. Erin calls Lanie about Poppy and asks where she is. Lanie heads over. Meanwhile, Poppy starts recording her podcast and talks about a parent protecting a child saying how, “safety is an all-consuming concern. So was Erin justified in killing her husband?”. Erin asks Lanie if they can do the interview with Poppy together. Lanie agrees and hands her mother some painkillers. Poppy rushes to Lanie’s house in a panic. She sees that Lanie’s daughter is wearing a mask and she asks her where it is from and Poppy looks very concerned.

In All That Was Lost Lanie and Poppy watch on, as Erin’s body is taken away. Later, Poppy and Markus discuss the suicide as they believe it points at Lanie being the guilty one. Suddenly, she gets a call from Warren who tells her that he’s in danger at the prison. He’s not able to finish his call however as other inmates quickly corner him and beat him up.Ingram speaks to his wife about her time in foster care and wants to know more about it. However, she dismisses his probing and asks him for his help to get the name of Lanie’s doctor when she was in the mental hospital. After obtaining the name, Poppy heads to see Josie and tells her about her mother being sober on the night her father died. She believes Lanie killed her father and when she found out her mother was going to talk, Lanie decided to kill her too. Penny then pleads for her help as she’s the only one who can.Pretending to be Lanie, Josie heads to Redwood Institute to get her sister’s medical report. Heading back in her car where Poppy is waiting for her, they read the pages and find out that Lanie was obsessed with her twin sister and that the doctors believed that she was lying about her father abusing her as it was a way to sever the emotional tie between Josie and her father. Meanwhile, Poppy tries helping Josie remember the night of the murder. She starts having flashbacks of her sister burying a sharp bird ornament and manages to find it in the woods. She then has another memory where she realizes that she was the one who stabbed her father that night. With the truth finally revealed, Poppy meets with Lanie who tells her she has a decision to make as she doesn’t think her twin will survive in prison.

Season 2
Coming soon

Season 3
Coming soon